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Suum Cuique 



JOHN DICKINSON 

THE AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION 
ON TAKING UP ARMS IN 

'77S 



BY 

GEORGE H. 'MOORE, LL.D. 

M 
SUPERINTRNDENT OF THE LENOX LIBRARV 



With a facsimile from the Original Draft 









NEW YORK 
PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR 

M DCCC XC 






Read before the New York Historical Society, J u fie tt/ij 1882. 



Copyright, 1890, by 
GEORGE H. MOORE 



Tfiowg 

THINTING and BOOKSINDINQ COMPANf, 

rtEW roRK. 



JOHN DICKINSON, THE AUTHOR OF THE 
DECLARATION ON TAKING UP 

ARMS IN 1775. 



John Dickinson had no superior in the highest rank 
of the advocates of his country's rights during the 
period of the Revolution. From the commencement 
of the disputes with the British Government, he was 
one of the most able, alert and fervid of its adver- 
saries : and if he has been much less celebrated than 
his eminent coadjutors, a just view of all the circum- 
stances which affected his popularity and for a time 
cast his fame into shadow can only raise the degree 
in which he should be known and revered by the 
present generation of Americans. Although born and 
nurtured among that great religious people, the So- 
ciety of Friends, whose faith righteously regards all 
wars and fightings as abomination, unfitted by education 
and social surroundings for the role of a soldier, having 
little of the constitution of those common, and vulgar and 
(I regret to say it) popular heroes, cut out for the ex- 
ecutive and brutal business of war ; still he went to the 
front with his regiment in 1776 : and if he was not one 
of the many who fought with the armies — no one can 



4 John Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

doubt that he was amply endued with that " courage of 
the cabinet " which Burke justly proclaims to be more 
powerful and far less common than the valour of the 
field. The language of that great orator, describing true 
statesmen and patriots generally, can justly be applied 
to Dickinson : 

"Their fortitude is very different from the unthinking 
alacrity of the common soldier, or common sailor, in the 
face of danger and death ; it is a cool, steady, deliberate 
principle, always present, always equable ; having no 
connection with anger; tempering honour with prudence ; 
incited, invigorated, and sustained, by a generous love 
of fame ; informed, moderated, and directed, by an 
enlarged knowledge of its own great public ends ; flow- 
ing in one blended stream from the opposite sources of 
the heart and head ; carrying in itself its own commis- 
sion, and proving its title to every other command, by 
the first and most difficult command, that of the bosom 
in which it resides." 

He was the eldest son, by a second marriage, of 
Samuel Dickinson of Maryland. His mother was Mary 
Cadwallader, of Pennsylvania, descended from one of 
the first settlers of that state. They were married in the 
religious Society of Friends. Sometime after the birth 
of this son in the winter of 1732-3, and while he was yet 
a youth, they removed to Delaware. His father gave 
him the best education in his power, and the growing 
boy enjoyed the great blessing of a cultivated and accom- 
plished mother. He read law in due course, and com- 
pleted his legal studies by a residence of three years in 
the Temple, London. After his return, he settled in 
Philadelphia and began what turned out to be a very 
successful practice. He married, in 1770, Mary Norris 
a daughter of the old Speaker Norris — a match which 



ott Takittg up Anns in 1775. 5 

strengthened the ties that attached him to the Society of 
Friends and grew stronger as he approached the decHne 
of life. This is apparent from the greater frequency and 
ultimate constancy of his use of the plain language in 
all his later correspondence. He died at Wilmington, in 
Delaware, where he had fixed his residence after his 
retirement from public life, on the 14th February, 1808 
— and rests, with his wife, in the ground belonging to 
the Society of Friends, in that place. 

In the division of parties after the adoption of the 
Federal Constitution, Mr. Dickinson became a Dem- 
ocrat, and hailed the election of Mr. Jefferson to the 
Presidency with unfeigned satisfaction. I have several 
of his unpublished letters to Jefferson which are full 
of joyous anticipations. 

He thought (21st February, 1801), "the influence of 
our transactions is not to be confined within the limits 
of our own land. Perhaps we are the selected People 
upon Earth, from whom large portions of Mankind are 
to learn that Liberty is really a transcendent blessing, as 
capable by its enlightened energies of calmly dissipating 
its internal enemies, as of triumphantly repelling its 
foreign foes. . . . My belief is unhesitating, that by 
the superintending Providence (of the adorable Creator 
of the world) a period greatly favorable is commencing 
in the destinies of the Human Race." 

A later letter (22d January, 1804) more strongly ex- 
presses his personal regard for the President and his 
anxious forebodings of the results of party strife in the ' 
republic. 

" The persevering hatred of the Federalists afflicts 
me, whenever I think of it. It is ominous. If such a 
temper can be cherished and supported in the youth of 
our commonwealth and under such an administration. 



6 yohii Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

and in so much prosperity as we have for several years 
enjoyed, what peace can we look for, when future cir- 
cumstances shall hold out to unprincipled ambition 
stronger temptations to fraud and violence. 

" History has been a favorite study with me ; and I 
can with truth declare, that in all its pages I have never 
met with such an instance of embittered and unprovoked 
hostility. Yet, in defiance of all this rage, thy country 
loves thee, acknowledges thy integrity, and reposes con- 
fidence in thy experienced abilities. At the same time 
thou must be conscious of the purity of thy intentions, 
and will, I hope, remember the faithful and important 
services thou hast rendered to these states and to the 
interest of humanity. These are sources of consolation 
of which I wish thee largely to partake." 

I cannot now give further illustrations of the personal 
relations which existed between these eminent men, save 
to read the letter of President Jefferson to Joseph Bring- 
hurst (Feb. 24, 1808) on receiving the news of Dickin- 
son's death. 

" Your letter of the i6th . . . gave me the first 
information of the death of our distinguished fellow citi- 
zen, John Dickinson. A more estimable man, or truer 
patriot, could not have left us. Among the first of the 
advocates for the rights of his Country when assailed by 
Great Britain, he continued to the last the orthodox ad- 
vocate of the true principles of our new government, and 
his name will be consecrated in history as one of the 
great worthies of the revolution. We ought to be grate- 
ful for having been permitted to retain the benefit of his 
counsel to so good an old age ; still, the moment of los- 
ing it, whenever it arrives, must be a moment of deep- 
felt regret. For himself, perhaps, a longer period of 
life was less important, alloyed as the feeble enjoyments 



on Taking up Arms in lyy^. 7 

of that age are with so much pain. But to his country 
every addition to his moments was interesting. A jun- 
ior companion of his labors in the early part of our rev- 
olution, it has been a great comfort to me to have re- 
tained his friendship to the last moment of his life." 

The proceedings in the Congress of the United States, 
upon the announcement of his death, indicate the esteem 
in which he was held. 

On Friday, February 19, 1808, Mr. Eppes [of Vir- 
ginia] said : 

" It has just been announced to me by a friend that 
John Dickinson, a venerable patriot of our Revolution, 
is no more. His attachment to liberty and his exertions 
in our struggle for independence are recorded on the 
page of history. His talents, his private virtues, and 
above all, his public services, entitle him to those marks 
of respect which have heretofore been extended to other 
patriots of the Revolution who no longer exist but in 
the remembrance of a grateful Country. 

" Mr. Eppes then moved the following resolution, 
which was adopted : 

" Resolved unanimously, That this House is pene- 
trated with a full sense of the eminent services rendered 
to his country in the most arduous times by the late 
John Dickinson, deceased ; and that the members there- 
of wear crape on the left arm for one month, in testi- 
mony of the national gratitude and reverence towards 
the memory of that illustrious patriot. 

In the Senate, on Monday, February 2 2d, 1808 : Mr. 
Samuel White, of Delaware, announced the death of 
John Dickinson. 

" Mr. President : It is with much pain and regret, sir, 
that I rise to announce to the Senate the irreparable 
loss our country has sustained in the death of one of 



8 yohn Dickinson, the Atithor of the Declaration 

her worthiest citizens and most distinguished patriots. 
Time has measured and told the days of another vener- 
able sage of the Revolution. John Dickinson, the illus- 
trious contemporary and friend of Washington and 
Franklin, is now no more — his head and his heart de- 
voted to the service and love of his country, till his locks 
were bleached by the frosts of more than seventy win- 
ters, have now descended in silence to the grave. No 
humble eulogy of mine shall attempt to approach his ex- 
alted merit. The happiness of his fellow-citizens was 
his only aim, and upon the grateful hearts of his coun- 
trymen is indelibly engraven the dearest memento of his 
wisdom and his worth. Those who shared his personal 
acquaintance will never forget his private virtues — vol- 
umes from his pen, that do honor to the age, that will 
be read and admired as long as the love of science and 
freedom shall be cherished, record his inflexible patriot- 
ism ; and the liberties of this country, which he contrib- 
uted so essentially in establishing, will I hope long, very 
long indeed, sir, continue to be the proud and unshaken 
monument of his fame. The feelings of every gentle- 
man of this honorable body will I am sure be in unison 
on the motion I am about to propose ; it is an humble 
tribute of respect to the memory of the deceased, in the 
form of the following resolution : 

" Resolved, imanimousiy. That the Senate is pene- 
trated with the full sense of the merit and patriotism of 
the late John Dickinson, Esq' deceased, and that the 
members thereof do wear crape on the left arm, for one 
month, in testimony of the national gratitude and rever- 
ence towards the memory of that illustrious patriot. 
" This resolution was immediately adopted." 
A brief review of the public services of Dickinson will 
fully justify the most favorable estimate. His first elab- 



on Taking up Arms /;^ 1775. 9 

orate effort against the policy of the British Cabinet, 
was a spirited pamphlet, printed at Philadelphia in 1765 
— entitled, " The late Regnlations respecting the Brit- 
ish Colonies on the Continent of America, considered." 
At the Stamp Act Congress in New York in the same 
year, he prepared the draft of the bold and pregnant 
resolves of that body.* In 1766, he published an ad- 
dress to a Committee of Correspondence in Barbadoes 
to vindicate the honour of his country, which they had 
grossly and wantonly insulted by a charge of rebellion 
for opposition to the Stamp Act and to refute opinions 
which in unfortunate times, might if adopted, prove in- 
jurious to Liberty. 

He next issued in 1767-8 his celebrated Letters from a 
Farmer in Pennsylvania to the Inhabitants of the British 
Colonies, which soon became the political Bible of North 
America.! Maseres : i. 284, Htitchinson : iii. 171, note. 

The principal doctrine advanced in them is this : 
" that the British Parliament, for want of representatives 
from the several colonies of America, had no right to 
impose any taxes whatever on the Americans either in- 
ternal or external, with a view to raise a revenue ; but 
could only lay external taxes, or port-duties, on the 
commodities imported into, and exported from, America, 
with a view to the regulation of their trade." 

* It was at that Congress in New York in 1765 that Dickinson became acquainted 
with James Otis, an acquaintance which soon grew into friendship and was recalled in 
his later years wlien he wrote to Mercy Warren (the accomplished sister of Otis) — "At 
this distant period, I have a pleasing recollection of his candour, spirit, patriotism 
and philosophy." Tudor' s Otis: 234: note. Monthly Anthology : v. 226. April': 
1808. Dickinson's letter to Mrs. Warren : 25th of the ist month, iSoJ. Tudor 
prints it " 25th of the gth month." Dickinson's letter to James Otis, accompanying 
the Farmer's Letters, December 5, 1769, is in Mrs. Warren's Hist. Am. Rev. i. 412. 

f First published in the Pennsylvania Chronicle and Gazette in twelve numbers be- 
ginning on the third of December, 1767, they were reprinted in the newspapers all 
over the country. The first pamphlet edition came out in March, 1768, and the sec- 
ond in the following June. 



lo John Dickiiisoti, the Author of tJie Declaration 

. No other single patriot of his time contributed more 
to the enlightenment of the American people in general 
on their rights, and the preparation of their minds and 
hearts for inflexible self defence, than John Dickinson in 
this famous publication. The Farmer's Letters were 
more practical, minute and skilful in their style and 
strain, than the writings of Otis, Adams, or Ouincy: and 
they had a much wider circulation and influence, both in 
the colonies and Europe. They speedily passed through 
many editions, in several places. Richard Henry Lee 
wrote the preface to the Virginia copy ; and Dr. Frank- 
lin to the London edition, printed under his auspices in 
1768.* They were translated into French and published 
in Paris, where they had a most flattering reception. 

As they circulated through the Colonies, thanks and 
gratulations came back upon the author from all quar- 
ters. A special committee appointed at a town meeting 
in Boston — among whom were Hancock, Samuel Adams 
and Dr. Warren, were charged to tender him the ac- 
knowledgments of the town, which they did in a most 
emphatic address. They styled him the " Friend of 
Americans, and the common benefactor of mankind." f 



* Artliur Lee, writing to Richard Henry Lee from London, says: "The Fann- 
er's Letters are much read liere, but to little purpose, though universally admired 
and no answer attempted." Life of R. H. Lee: i. 59-61. Jefferson however, in 
1815 (Aug. 5, to Wirt) considered " the celebrated p'armer's Letters . . . 
really but an ignis fatiius, misleading us from true principles." Works : vi. 486. 
Dr. Franklin to M. Le Roy : from London, 31 January, 1769, says : "The Farm- 
er's Letters were written by one Mr. Dickinson, of Philadelphia, and not by me, as 
you seem to suppose. I only caused them to be reprinted here with that little Pre- 
face, and had no other hand in them, except that I see some of my sentivteitts for- 
merly published, are collected, and interwoven with those of others and his own, by 
the author. I an»glad they afforded you any amusement." 

f Dr. Nathaniel Ames's Almanack for 1772 gave a fearful woodcut portrait of 
John Dickinson, "who with Attic Eloquence and Roman Spirit hath asserted the 
Liberties of the British Colonies in America." A view of Mrs. Catherine M'Cauley 
also appeared in the same publication. 



on Taking tip Arms in 1775. 11 

The fruits of his patriotic pen at this period were not 
limited to prose. A " Song for American Freedom " 
chiefly composed by him became very popular through- 
out the whole country. It was written to the tune 
Heart of Oak, then well known to all Englishmen in 
the verses of David Garrick and music of Doctor Boyce. 
See Appendix : i. 

In 1774, he wrote the Resolves of the Committee for 
the Province of Pennsylvania and their instructions to 
their representatives. These instructions embodied a 
thorough and exhaustive Essay on the Constitutional 
Power of Great Britain over the Colonies in America. 
Thus his eminent abilities and their generous exercise 
in the service of his country, had been widely acknowl- 
edged before those assemblies came together of the 
great Continental Congress in which he was to win his 
most lasting honors. He made his first appearance in 
that Congress on the 17th of October, 1774.* 

A committee had been appointed to prepare an Ad- 
dress to the King — and on the 21st of October, they 
brought in a draft, which " was written in language of 
asperity, very little according with the conciliatory dis- 
position of Congress." After some debate, it was re- 
committed, and Mr. Dickinson was added to the Com- 
mittee, who drew and reported the paper, which, after 
some amendments, was approved and adopted as the 
First Petition to the King.f 

* "His election was on Saturday the 15th, and on Monday the 17th Ocf he 
took his Seat in Congress and immediately entered deeply into the business then un- 
der deliberation. He was app. one of the Comm™ to prepare an Address to the 
people of Canada, and the first draught of the Petition to the King not meeting the 
approbation of Congress was recommitted, and he was added to the Com"" and had 
a principal hand in [drawing up] that which was sent." JIIS. p. 12. N. Y. H. 
S. Coll. 1878, p. 280. Penn. Mag. ii. 41 8. 

f John Adams who subsequently caricatured Mr. Dickinson so ungraciously, on 
the 24th Oct. 1774, made this entry in his Diary in the midst of a general fault-find- 



12 John Dickuison, the Author of the Declaration 

The pen of Mr. Dickinson was also employed during 
the same latter days of the session in the composition 
of The Address of Congress to the Inhabitants of Que- 
bec, which was in like manner accepted and approved. 

This Congress was an assemblage of men, no less 
distinguished for their talents than their patriotism, men 
who were not only acquainted with their rights but 
knew how to maintain them : and these papers, drawn 
with the ability of a scholar as well as a statesman, 
elicited universal admiration for their firmness, their 
unexampled dignity and elevation of sentiment as 
well as energy and eloquence of diction. Franklin, 
who was in London at the time, says they were 
much admired. " Nothing of the kind has been more 
thoroughly published or more universally read." Works: 

X. 437-* 

These were the State Papers of the American Con- 
gress — these " masterpieces of practical talent and polit- 
ical wisdom," which called for the splendid panegyric of 



ing, &c. "Mr. Dickinson is very modest, delicate and timid." The personal rela- 
tions of these emhient men had an important bearing upon the events of their time and 
their subsequent treatment in history. Adamses utterances about Dicltinson should 
all be examined and compared, &c. See his Works : passim. Also his letters to Jef- 
ferson, in Works of Jefferson. Adams to Rush: 30th Sept. 1805. "Although 
Mr. Dickinson was then offended with me, on account of an intercepted Utter, and 
never spoke to me personally, yet I was told that he was highly pleased with my sen- 
timents on foreign affairs." Works: i. 200. See also the correspondence between 
John Adams and John Jay in 1818, which is very characteristic and important. 
Jafsjay: ii. 37S-384. 

* The writer of tlie Annual Register for 1775 : says "it must be acknowledged 
that the petition and addresses from the Congress have been executed with uncom- 
mon energy, address and ability ; and . . . considered abstractedly, with respect 
to vigour of mind, strength of sentiment, and the language, at least, of patriotism, 
they would not have disgraced any assembly that ever existed." /. 36. 

The same writer says, in another place, "Of all the papers published by the 
American Congress, their address to the French inhabitants of Canada, discovers the 
most dextrous management, and tlie most able method of application to the temper 
and passions of the parties, whom they endeavour to gain." p. 32. 



on Taking up Arms in 1775. 13 

Lord Chatham in the House of Lords— which you all 
remember : 

" When your Lordships have perused the papers trans- 
mitted to us ixom America, when you consider the dignity, 
the firmness, and the wisdom, with which the Americans 
have acted, you cannot but respect their cause. 

" History, my Lords, has been my favourite study, 
and in the celebrated writings of antiquity, have I often 
admired the patriotism of Greece and Rome ; but, my 
Lords, I must declare and avow, that in the master states 
of the world, I know not the people or the senate, who, 
in such a complication of difficult circumstances, can 
stand in preference to the delegates of America, assem- 
bled in general Congress at Philadelphia. I trust, it is 
obvious to your lordships, that all attempts to impose 
servitude upon such men, to establish despotism over 
such a mighty continental nation, must be vain." 

In the second Continental Congress, Mr. Dickinson's 
part was no less conspicuous, and to him was assigned 
the duty which he performed of preparing the Second 
Petition to the King and A Declaration by the Rep- 
resentatives of the United Colonies of North America, 
now met in Congress at Philadelphia, setting forth the 
Causes and Necessity of their taking tip Arms.* 



• William Jay, the son and biographer of John Jay, claimed for his father, that 
the second Petition to the King " originated with him, and was carried by him 
against a very strong opposition in Congress. The petition from ;,/,. y„y^;4^^„„„< 
the last Congress had been treated with insulting neglect, and it of the Petitim to 

. , . I J 1. ■ the Km^. 

was now contended that to petition a second time would be incon- 
sistent with self respect ; and although no regard would probably be paid to the peti- 
tion, yet it would tend to excite fallacious hopes of an accommodation, and conse- 
quently to postpone the necessary preparations for a contest that was now inevitable. 
Mr. Jay, however, maintained that if the people were called to take up arms against 
their sovereign, they ought to be persuaded that such a measure was unavoidable ; 
and should it be found necessary hereafter for the Colonies to separate from Britain, 
the conviction that no proper efforts to prevent such an event had been omitted. 



14 JoJm Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

As it is the chief purpose at this time to vindicate the 
claim of Mr. Dickinson to the sole authorship of the lat- 

would reconcile the consciences of many to a course of conduct which would other- 
wise be inconsistent with their oaths of allegiance. The arguments of Mr. Jay pre- 
vailed ; and a committee, including himself, was appointed to draught the petition. 
Mr. Dickinson, one of the committee, wrote the petition. It was ably drawn, and 
well calculated to allay the resentment which the late proceedings in Congress were 
likely to excite in those who entertained exalted opinions of the royal prerogative. 
The petition was loyal and respectful, and represented the people of America as de- 
sirous only to preserve their own rights, and not seeking to invade those of the King 
and Parliament. 

All the advantages anticipated by Mr. Jay from tlris measure, were fully realized; 
and he was accustomed to speak of the auspicious itifiuence it exercised on the Ameri- 
can Reiiolution. The rejection of the petition left no other alternative than sub- 
mission or resistance, and numbers acquiesced in the Declaration of Independence 
the ensuing year, as an act of necessity, who would have questioned its lawfulness 
had not the experiment of accommodation been fairly and fully made." Life of 
John Jay : i. 36-37. 

" A Declaration was deemed necessary to justify tlie Americans in taking up arms. 
£>. who still retained a fond hope of reconciliation with Great Britain, was strenu- 
ous for trying the effects of another Petition to the King, and 

Charles Thomson's jo , , ta i. j 

Account of the being Warmly seconded the measure was agreed to and D. had a 

Papers. considerable hand in drawing up both the Petition and the Decla- 

ration, which were both sent at the same time to England. The subject of the Peti- 
tion, as well as the Declaration, occasioned long and warm debates in Congress, 
in which D. took a distinguished part, which was circulated about in whispers to his 
disadvantage. However he maintained his ground among the generality of the peo- 
ple in his own Province and particularly among those who still wished and hoped to 
see a Reconciliation take place, and it must be allowed that if his judgment had not 
quite approved the measure, yet on account of the people of Pennsylvania, it was 
both prudent and politic to adopt it. Without making an experiment, it would 
have been impossible ever to have persuaded the bulk of Pennsylvania, but that an 
humble Petition drawn up without those clauses against which the Ministers and 
Parliament of Great Britain took exceptions in the former Petition, would have met 
with a favourable reception, and produced the desired effect. But this Petition, 
which was drawn up in the most submissive and unexceptionable terms, meeting with 
the same fate as others, obviated objections that would Jiave been raised, and had a 
powerful effect in suppressing opposition, preserving unanimity, and bringing the 
Province in a united body into the contest. Whatever hand, therefore, D. had in 
promoting it ought to have redounded to his credit as a politician." MS. pp. 13-14. 
N. Y. H. S. Coll. 1878: pp. 284-5. -Penn. Mag. ii. 422-23. 

With rffipect to these papers (of the Second Continental Congress) the writer of 
the Annual Register before quoted expresses himself in terms of high praise : •' All 
these were drawn up in a very masterly manner ; and are, in respect to art, address, 
and execution, equal to any public declarations made by any powers upon the 
greatest occasions." Annual Reg, 1775: p. '140. 



on Taking up Arms in 1775. 15 

ter paper, I will hasten to complete this imperfect sketch 
of his career — and return to that part of my subject in 
conclusion. 

For a time his influence in Congress is said to have 
been unbounded, to such an extent indeed was this im- 
pression carried that the English considered him "the 
ruler of America." 

But this splendid career of popularity was not without 
interruption — and Dickinson was compelled to submit to 
the severe discipline of public reproach and obloquy for 
what was unquestionably one of the most courageous 
and conscientious acts of his whole life ; an example, in- 
deed, of moral courage of which there are but few con- 
spicuous instances in all our history. The only parallels 
I have seen noted are the determination of Washing- 
ton to sustain Jay's Treaty and that of John Adams 
(the great enemy of Dickinson) to make a Treaty with 
France in 1799. Hildreth. 

Shakespeare, in one of those marvellous sonnets to 
which all our hearts are opened at some time, has told 
us that 

" The painful warrior, famousdd for fight, 
After a thousand victories, once foiled. 
Is from the boolcs of honour razed quite, 
And all the rest forgot for which he toiled." 

Dickinson spoke and voted against the Declaration of 
Independence in July, 1776, on the ground that at the 
time such a measure was premature. He acknowledged 
the right and authority of Congress to make it, and the 
justice of making it — but he disputed the policy of mak- 
ing it then. 

He knew, and in the great speech he made on that 
occasion he told the Congress that he was acting an un- 



1 6 John Dickittson, the Author of the Declaration 

popular part in the debate upon the Declaration, and, 
conscious of the sincere purity of his motives, he called 
upon that illustrious assembly to witness the integrity, 
if not t\\e policy, of his conduct. 

His arguments were most powerful, although they did 
not prevail ; and they were singularly confirmed in many 
instances by subsequent events. The whole speech was 
one of characteristic patriotism and ability ; and his 
peroration, after having summed up the particulars of 
preparation for independence which he regarded as nec- 
essary to insure a successful issue — was worthy of the 
occasion : 

" Upon the whole, when things shall thus be deliber- 
" ately rendered firm at home, and favorable abroad, 
" then let America — 

" AttoUens humeris Famam, et Fata nepotum 

" Bearing aloft the glory and the destinies of her chil- 
" dren — advance with majestic steps and assume her sta- 
" tion among the sovereigns of the world." See Appen- 
dix : ii. 

It was not until the 2d of August that the Declaration 
of Independence was signed by the members. It was 
then signed by the members present on that day, in- 
cluding the new members who had taken their seats 
since the 4th of July. But such of the old members as 
had left Congress before the 2d of August, and did not 
return before the end of the year, could not sign it. 

This will explain why Mr. Dickinson's name is not 
found among the signers of the Declaration. He was 
not in Congress on the 2d of August, 1776, nor after- 
wards in that year. But, because his name is not there, 
it is by no means to be inferred that he was in the 
slightest degree disaffected to the cause. Robert 



on Taking up Arms in 1775. 17 

Morris also, like Dickinson, opposed Independence on 
the ground that such action was premature. He op- 
posed the resolution in debate, and voted against it 
when the question was taken on the 2d of July, but 
both, when the decision was made, acquiesced in the 
measure, and gave it their earnest, firm, and cordial 
support. Before the middle of July Mr. Dickinson 
marched, with the regiment he commanded, to Elizabeth 
Town, in New Jersey, where he remained until they 
were discharged in the following September. In the 
mean time, a new delegation was chosen by the Penn- 
sylvania Convention, in which Mr. Morris was retained, 
but Mr. Dickinson was not rechosen. On the 2d of 
August, therefore, Robert Morris was in the Congress, 
and signed the Declaration ; but John Dickinson, who 
was then not a member, could not sign it. 

He was at that time, in the field, giving the most ab- 
solute proof possible of his devotion to the independence 
of America when once it became the resohition of 
America. He did not hesitate to accept the fact that 
his reasons against it that were proper in a debate 
were useless after a decision and his prompt acqui- 
escence evinces still more clearly that they opposed 
only the time of the Declaration and not independence 
itself. 

I am fortunately able to quote his own words on these 
topics : " I spoke my sentiments freely, as an honest 
man ought to do, yet, when a determination was made 
upon the question against my opinion, I received that 
determination as the sacred voice of my country, as a 
voice that proclaimed her destiny, in which, by every 
impulse of my soul, I was resolved to share, and to 
stand or fall with her in that plan of freedom which she 
had chosen. From that moment, it became my deter- 



1 8 John Dickinsojt, the Author of the Declaration, 

mination ; and I cheerfully contributed my endeavours 
for its perpetual establishment." 

These are the words of his defence against his tra- 
ducers in 1783, in Congress and the Army, as well as 
the home-guard of Pennsylvania : whose noisy abuse justi- 
fied him in the additional reminder — I will still quote his 
own words : 

" Within a few days after the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, I was the only Member of Congress that 
marched with my regiment to Elizabeth-Town against 
our enemies, then invading the State of New York, and 
continued in actual service there, daily in sight of them, 
every moment exposed, and frequently expecting upon 
intelligence received to be attacked — during the whole 
tour of duty performed by the militia of this city and 
neighborhood." 

These were the tokens of his patriotism, the proofs 
that it was genuine, and that he was not of any faction 
in the coming republic. And thus from the time that 
Independence was declared, and seemed to be the wish 
of the majority of the people — he not only desisted from 
opposition, but encouraged every effort and sacrifice for 
the consummation of the design. He soon recovered 
his seat in Congress, being chosen by every vote of both 
branches of the Legislature a delegate from Delaware 
in 1779, and the ardent and resolute Address of Con- 
gress to the several States, in May of that year, which 
he wrote and reported — furnishes ample evidence of the 
tone of his republicanism, and the patriotic fire of his 
genius. It was, indeed, as described by our late hon- 
ored associate Mr. Verplanck, "a memorable and elo- 
quent state paper." 

He passed into executive office as President of the 
States of Delaware and Pennsylvania successively, being 



on Taking Mp Arms in 1775. 19 

chosen unanimously by the two houses in a full session 
in Delaware in 1781, and triumphantly in the face of a 
violent and personally abusive opposition — to which 
I have already referred — in Pennsylvania in 1782.* 

In his capacity of President of the Supreme Execu- 
tive Council he became the chief of the High Court of 
Errors and Appeals of Pennsylvania — a tribunal estab- 
lished by {C/iap. 144) Law of lySo — in which besides 
the President, there were the Judges of the Supreme 
Court, the Judge of the Admiralty for the time being, 
together with three other persons appointed and com- 
missioned for seven years. 

In 1784-5, shortly after the declaration of our inde- 
pendence had been confirmed by a triumphant peace, 
the occasion came for the first time to decide a question 
of the law of nations against the consent of British au- 
thorities. It was upon the points of Prize and Admiralty 
Jurisdiction, in the High Court of Errors and Appeals of 
Pennsylvania, during the September session of 1784. 

The case had been ably argued on several days, 
and at an adjourned session, held the 14th of January, 
1785, the President [Dickinson] delivered the resolution 
of the Court : 

" . . . Are we then, because in England they 
call the Admiralty Court a Prize Court when it acts in 
a cause of prize, and it then proceeds in a different 

* The Pennsylvania Packet : No. 960, November 7, 1782, contains Presi- 
dent Dickinson's Message to the General Assembly of Delaware, October 29, 1782 
— followed by a notice to the Freemen of Pennsylvania, &c. 

" Mr. Dickinson has in letters to each of the printers requested them to publish 
nothing in his favour and everything that should be offered against him, until the 
election of a President of the State was over, thereby discovering a consciousness in 
his own integrity, and a noble disinterestedness with respect to the first office in the 
State." 

He was chosen President (by Council and Assembly) and proclaimed, etc. Thurs- 
day, November 7, 1782. 



20 John Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

manner, with an appeal to Commissioners of the Privy 
Council, to reject the ' jiniversal and immemorial' com- 
pact of7nankind ? There was a time — when we listened 
to the language of her senates and her courts, luith a 
partiality of veneration, as to oracles. It is past — we 
have assiim.ed our station among the powers of the earth, 
and must attend to the voice of nations — the sentiments 
of the Society into which we have entered." Dallas : i. 
1 06. 

His services were also conspicuous in Congress as an 
early participator and great agent in forming the Confed- 
eration in its first and best character. Mr. Bancroft, 
who has by no means come up to my idea of justice to 
Dickinson, although he speaks of " the venerated name 
of Dickinson," characterizes him as " a principal author 
of the articles of confederation." He was so, but he 
was not at all blinded to its defects — witness his own 
words — " our first federal constitution partook largely 
of the dissociating ingredients, that were too redundant 
among us. It was pregnant with disorders." Works, 
ii. 169. 

In the movements toward a better government he was 
active and influential. He was a Commissioner to the 
Convention at Annapolis in 1786,* in which he was made 
chairman by an unanimous vote — and he took an impor- 
tant part in the labors of the Convention which framed 
the Constitution of the United States — in Mr. Bancroft's 

* The Convention assembled for the purpose of devising and reporting the means 
of enabling Congress to provide effectually for the commercial interests of the U. S. 
In 1803, Mr. Dickinson wrote to Mr. Jefferson : 

"My dear Friend : 

" Having lately found among my papers, the original documents relating to the 
Convention that met at Annapolis in the year 1786, I think it my duty to transmit 
them to the Executive of the Union, and therefore I now send them. 

" Wilmington " I am entirely thy Friend, 

" the 20th of the 1 2th month, 1S03. " John Dickinson." 



on Taking 7ip Arms in 1775. 21 

eloquent words — " the most cheering act in the poUti- 
cal history of mankind, when thirteen repubhcs, of which 
at least three reached from the sea to the Mississippi, 
formed themselves into one federal commonwealth." 
See Appendix : iii. 

In 1788, being alarmed by the hesitation of some 
states to ratify that instrument, he wrote and published 
in its favor, nine very able letters over the signature of 
Fabius. 

He used the same signature in fourteen letters which 
he issued in 1797 — the object of which was to persuade 
the United States into a "cordial amity" with France. 
He cherished throughout all his later years a deep and 
grateful remembrance of the aid of Louis XVI, extended 
to the United States in their extremity, and his apos- 
trophe to the shade of the murdered king in one of 
these letters is full of the most tender, touching and 
classic beauty. 

Our late honored associate, Mr. Verplanck, in an ad- 
dress before this Society in 181 8, said that these letters 
" were in the United States what Mackintosh's Vindicise 
Gallicse was in England, not equal indeed in magnifi- 
cence of language, but little inferior in elegance and in 
ability, or in exuberance of thought and knowledge." 

In 1792, Mr. Dickinson was a member of the Conven- 
tion which formed the Constitution of Delaware. 

The question of authorship of the Declaration on tak- 
ing up Arms in 1775, to which I propose to devote the 
remainder of my time on this occasion, is not a very 
complicated one. There is but one adverse claimant 
and his pretence is only to a part of the work. But his 
reputation is of the highest, and the part he claimed was 
that which was said to be the best. 

I propose to settle this question now and here. If 



2 2 Johii Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

any further defence should be needed, I will defend 
against all comers the absolute, sole and undivided 
right of John Dickinson to that " imperishable trophy 
of his pen "—the original draft of which in his own 
handwriting I hold in my hand and shall further exhibit 
hereafter. 

So far as I have been able to learn or discover, his 
immediate contemporaries had uniformly ascribed it to 
him, until the appearance of the claim to which I have 
referred— made long after his death. 

In the year 1801, two octavo volumes of Mr. Dickin- 
son's Political Writings were published in Wilmington 
with his approbation and consent. 

The Declaration on taking up Arms was included 
among these writings : and this justly established the 
opinion generally received among the contemporaries of 
the author.* 

This is not all. In the second volume of Chief Jus- 
tice Marshall's Life of Washington, he stated that the 
original composition of the First Petition to the King 
had been generally attributed to Mr. Lee. This vol- 
ume appeared in 1804 — three years after the publication 
of Mr. Dickinson's writings in Wilmington. 

Mr. Dickinson was one of the subscribers to the work 
of the Chief Justice ; and was surprised and hurt to find 
such a reflection cast upon his character : which he re- 
garded as a very severe one. His own language, in a 
letter on the subject, written the 15th of the 9th month, 
1804, gives the best view of the matter : — He says: 

" The severity of the reflection [of the Chief Justice] 

* In the second volume, the statement is expressly made that the " Address to the 
Inhabitants of Quebec — the First Petition to the King — the Declaration to the 
Armies — the Second Petition to the King — and the Address to the several States, 
extracted from the Journals of Congress, have always been ascribed to the pen of 
Mr. Dickinson." Vol. ii., page i. 



on Taking up Arms m 1775. 23 

arises from this circumstance. In the year i?oo, two 
young printers applied to me, for my consent to pubHsh 
my poHtical writings, from which they expected to de- 
rive some emolument. I gave my consent, and in the 
following year they published in their place two octavo 
volumes, as my political writings. 

" This publication being made in the town where I re- 
side, no person of understanding can doubt that I must 
be acquainted with the contents. Of course, I must 
be guilty of the greatest baseness, if, for my credit, I 
knowingly permitted writings which I had not com- 
posed to be publicly imputed to me, without a positive 
and public contradiction of the imputation. This con- 
tradiction I never have made, and never shall make, 
conscious as I am, that every one of those writings was 
composed by me. 

" The question whether I wrote the first petition to 
the King, is of little moment, but the question, whether 
I have countenanced an opinion that I did write it, 
though in reality I did not, is to me of vast importance." 

Chief Justice Marshall promptly corrected the error 
into which he had fallen, and gave the correction a con- 
spicuous place in his fourth volume. It is an interesting 
note, and I will read it : — ■ 

" In detailing the early proceedings of the American 
Congress, the opinion was given that the petition to the 
King was written by Mr. Lee. Justice requires the 
declaration that this eloquent composition was the work 
of Mr. Dickinson. 

" The original petition reported by Mr. Lee did not 
manifest sufficiently that spirit of conciliation which then 
animated Congress, and was therefore disapproved. 
Mr. Dickinson was added to the committee, and drew 
the petition which was adopted." 



24 John Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

We have thus the positive statement of Mr. Dickinson 
that the Declaration on taking up Arms in 1775, Hke all 
the other papers included in the publication of his politi- 
cal writings, was composed by him. We find no other 
claimant for it or any part of it, during his lifetime. And 
he had rested with his life's best companion in the quiet 
Friends' burying ground in Wilmington for nearly a 
quarter of a century before the first and probably last 
and only interference with his title began to be bruited 
abroad. 

In 1829, the Memoirs, Correspondence and Private 
Papers of Thomas Jefferson, were first published from 
the original MSS. under the editorial supervision of his 
nephew, the late Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The 
Memoir, contained in the first volume, gives circumstan- 
tial notices of his earliest life ; and is continued to his 
arrival in New York, in March, 1790, when he entered 
on the duties of Secretary of State, under Washington. 
Its first sentence indicates the time and circumstances 
in which it was written. 

" January 6, 1821. At the age of seventy-seven, I 
begin to make some memoranda, and state some recol- 
lections of dates and facts concerning myself, for my 
own more ready reference, and for the information of 
my family." 

Mr. Jefferson's life and career are too familiar to need 
any recapitulation here of the events which preceded his 
entry into Congress, in which he was destined to hold 
so conspicuous a place. I shall therefore have occasion 
to quote those passages only from his autobiography 
which record his entrance there and happen to be those 
which chiefly concern the subject and the object of the 
present paper. Mr. Jefferson says : 

" I took my seat with them on the 21st of June. On 



on Taking tip Arms in 1775. 25 

the 24th, a committee which had been appointed to pre- 
pare a declaration of the causes of taking up arms, 
brought in their report (drawn I believe by J. Rut- 
ledge) which, not being liked, the House recommitted 
it on the 26th, and added Mr. Dickinson and myself to 
the committee. . . . / prepared a draught of the 
Declaration committed to us.* // zvas too sirojig for 
Mr. Dickinson. He still retained the hope of reconcil- 
iation with the mother country, and was unwilling it 
should be lessened by offensive statements. He was so 
honest a man, and so able a one, that he was greatly 
indulged even by those who could not feel his scruples. 
We therefore requested him to take the paper, and put 
it into a form he could approve. He did so, preparing an 
entire new statement, z.vvdi preserving of the former only 

the LAST FOUR PARAGRAPHS AND HALF OF THE PRECEDING 

ONE. We approved and reported it to Congress, who 
accepted it." 

Such is Mr. Jefferson's own account of his share in 
the composition of the Declaration of 1775. 

Mr. Tucker, in his Life of Jefferson, published in 
1837, a few years later, reasserts the claim thus made in 
the Autobiography, and quotes entire "the part fur- 
nished by Mr. Jefferson " . . . " as a specimen of 
his sentiments and diction at the time." He states as a 
fact, derived from anecdotes related in the same auto- 
biography, that the pride of authorship relative to the 
several public addresses which emanated from that body, 
mingled with their grave and momentous deliberations." 

"■ It would be an interesting feature of this discussion, if a comparison could be 
made between the draft which Mr. Jefferson says he prepared, too strong for Mr. 
Dickinson, and the stirring periods of the document we have ! Certainly nothing 
which Mr. Jefferson had written before that time has anything like the tone and 
ring of this Declaration, and I do not think it can ever suffer in any just compari- 
son with the much more famous Declaration of Independence a year later. 



26 John Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

Mr. Tucker does not fail to call attention to the fact 
that the portion claimed by Jefferson is " precisely that 
part of Mr. Dickinson's paper which annalists have 
commonly quoted," and adds — " It probably owes this 
distinction not wholly to its intrinsic superiority, but in 
part also to its harmonizing better with the issue of the 
contest." 

Mr. Jefferson's reputation as a writer, which is said to 
have preceded him in the Congress, was that of the 
author of "A Summary View of the Rights of British 
America " — the proposed instructions to the Virginia 
delegates in 1774. It must have been not a little en- 
larged by his answer to the conciliatory propositions of 
Lord North presented by Lord Dunmore to the Vir- 
ginia Assembly in June, 1775, — which as the result of 
their action he brought with him to Philadelphia. 

I think no one will question the opinion that the dic- 
tion of this document is altogether different and mani- 
festly inferior to the Declaration. It was reported to the 
House on the 12th of June, and was adopted " with a 
few softening touches." 

In this paper the Burgesses, after professing their wish 
for a reconciliation with the mother country, as, next 
to the profession of liberty, " the greatest of all human 
blessings," declare, that they cannot accept the proffered 
terms, and refer the subject to the General Congress 
then sitting. They conclude in the following animated 
strain : 

" For ourselves, we have exhausted every mode of 
application which our invention could suggest, as proper 
and promising. We have devoutly remonstrated with 
Parliament ; they have added new injuries to the old. 
We have wearied our King with supplications ; he has 
not deigned to answer us. We have appealed to the 



on Taking 7ip Arms in 1775. 27 

native honor and justice of the British Nation ; their ef- 
forts in our favor have hitherto been ineffectual. What 
then remains to be done ? That we commit our inju- 
ries to the even-handed justice of that Being who doth 
no wrong, earnestly beseeching him to illuminate the 
Councils, and prosper the endeavors of those to whom 
America hath confided her hopes ; that through their 
wise direction we may again see reunited the blessings of 
liberty and property, and the most permanent harmony 
with Great Britain." 

Neither this document, nor the still more important 
amplification of it which Mr. Jefferson wrote in the 
following month indicates any of those unmistakable 
features in common with the concluding paragraphs of 
the Declaration of 1775 — the family resemblance which 
might stamp them as the offspring of the same parent. 

As we read them in order, even if we could recognize 
the step of the march as taken in similar time, the 
changes seem like those of the military parades with 
which we are all familiar, in which the monotonous 
though noisy drums and fifes fill up the intervals of far 
grander music. 

A later biographer of Mr. Jefferson, enlarges on this 
theme with much greater enthusiasm, but no more 
knowledge : — He says of his idol — 

" He had not a particle of the vanity of authorship, of 
being at the head of committees, or of bearing the name 
of leadership. In three cases out of four, where, in his 
various writings, he mentions his participation in the ac- 
tion of any celebrated committee of which he was really 
chairman, he places his name last^and this, oftentimes, 
in instances where it is not easy to find the records 
which assign him his true position. We scarcely recol- 
lect an example of a contrary kind, where a positive ef- 



28 yolui Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

fort had not been made (not to leave the thing in a state 
of equality where he left it) but to directly take credit 
from him to give it to another. And his reclamations, 
then, were usually something of the latest, as in the in- 
stance just given in regard to the Address on the 
Causes of taking up Arms. 

" That production was one of the most popular ones 
ever issued by Congress. It was read amid thundering 
huzzas in every market place, and amid fervent prayers 
in nearly every pulpit in the Colonies. The commanders 
read it at the head of our armies.* On the heights of 
Dorchester (we think it was) amid booming cannon and 
under the folds of the banner bearing the ever-green 
pine tree, and the sternly confident motto ' Qui trans- 
tulit, sustinet,' Putnam proclaimed it to the applauding 
yeomanry of New England under his command. It was 
quoted again and again admiringly in history. It will not 
probably be denied that this celebrated production owed 
most of its popularity to ' the last four paragraphs and 
half of the preceding one.' It would have been a very 
ordinary affair without these. This was the only part 
the admiring historians quoted. Yet ' the youngest 
member but one in Congress ' never gave even a hint 
(we believe) of its authorship, sufferittg all the reputa- 
tion of it to rest with Mr. Dickinson, until he men- 
tioned it iti a paper {the Memoir^ destined never to see 
the light ttntil Mr. Dickinson and hijn self had gone 
dowji to the grave. Of this, as of various other recla- 
mations which he really owed to himself, he made no 
memoranda until he was seventy-seven years old, show- 
ing how little precaution he took, or anxiety he felt, on 

* Bancroft : viii. 47. Declaration read "on Prospect Hill amidst such shouts 
that the British on Bunker Hill put themselves in array for battle " on the i8th July, 
1775- 



071 Taking Up Arms in 1775. 29 

the subject. And many of them, Hke this, seem rather 
accidentally or incidentally made in his simple narration 
of facts, than set down for any special purpose. It may 
be truly said, and the remark is thrown out here some- 
what in advance — that the reader may make it a stand- 
ard to try Mr. Jefferson by on all occasions — that a con- 
spicuous public man more utterly destitute of vanity 
than he was, never existed. . . ." Randall: vol. 
ii., 114-116. 

Such is Mr. Randall's estimate of what he elsewhere 
describes as " the first purely popular address prepared 
by Mr. Jefferson," and that gentleman's self-denying 
modesty. It is hardly necessary to add Mr. Parton's 
vivacious and lively periods on this topic. He improves 
on all his predecessors, and illuminates for the moment 
by his brilliant persiflage the shadows he aims to deepen 
over any part which Mr. Dickinson or anybody else but 
Mr. Jefferson might, could, would or should claim, in 
the Declaration of 1775. 

Here, permit me to pause a moment and return to Mr. 
Jefferson's memoranda — in which his story of the Dec- 
laration is supplemented by a still more extraordinary 
account of the second Petition to the King, of which, it 
will be noticed, he does not claim any share in the com- 
position. I must ask your close attention to every 
word of this studied depreciation of Mr. Dickinson and 
its dramatic finish in the final anecdote. 

" Congress gave a signal proof of their indulgence to 
Mr. Dickinson, and of their great desire not to go too 
fast for any respectable part of our body, in permitting 
him to draw their second petition to the King according 
to his own ideas, and passing it with scarcely any amend- 
ment. The disgust against its humility was general, 
and Mr. Dickinson's delight at its passage was the only 



30 John Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

circumstance which reconciled them to it. The vote 
being passed, although further observation on it was out 
of order, he could not refrain from rising and express- 
ing his satisfaction, and concluded by saying, ' there is 
but one word, Mr. President, in the paper which I dis- 
approve, and that is the word Congress ; ' on which Ben 
Harrison rose and said, ' there is but one word in the 
paper, Mr. President, of which I approve, and that is the 
word Congress.^ " 

The official record of proceedings on this subject is as 
follows : 

On the 3d June, 1775, it was resolved that a com- 
mittee of five be appointed to draught a petition to the 
King — and when the Congress proceeded to the choice, 
which was by ballot, the following gentlemen were 
elected : 

Mr, Dickinson 
" Johnson 
" j. rutledge 
" Jay and 
" Franklin. 

On the 19th June, the Committee appointed to pre- 
pare a petition to the King, reported a draught of one, 
which was read.* 

On the 4th July, the petition to the king being again 
read, after some debate, the further consideration of it 
was deferred till the next day, when Congress resumed 
its consideration and being debated by paragraphs, was 
agreed to, and ordered to be engrossed. 

On the 8th July, having been engrossed, it was com- 
pared at the table and signed by the members present. 

♦ Washington was appointed Commander in chief, on the 15th of June, 1775. 



on Taking up Arms in 1775. 31 

It must not be forgotten that this paper which Mr. 
Jefferson would have us believe was reluctantly and 
barely tolerated by an impatient Congress was drawn 
by the same hand and under consideration at the same 
time with the Declaration,* a share in whose composi- 
tion is claimed by Mr. Jefferson himself. He empha- 
sizes the contrast between the general disgust at the 
humility of the one and the universal admiration of the 
other by his picture of the delight of Mr. Dickinson — 
but the absurdity of his narrative reaches its climax in 
the anecdote about the word Congress. 

That word appears but once in the entire document ; 
in the opening sentence, which is precisely similar, in- 
deed in almost the identical words of the first petition. 
Nobody can read the document itself and believe for 
one moment that either Mr. Dickinson or Mr. Harrison 
could by any possibility have wasted their breath in 
such empty talk on any occasion, much less in a scene 
of such momentous interest to themselves and their 
country. 

Yet ridiculous as it must appear to any well ordered 
intellect, after a moment's attention, this worthless tale 
has been embalmed in some of the most carefully writ- 
ten periods of our ablest historians — like a dead fly in 
the precious ointment of the apothecary. They seem 
to have thought the word " Congress " a word to charm 
with — a word of mysterious power and significance — in- 

* " As to matters of fact, the Proclamation ; which you ascribe to General 
Washington upon his first taking the command of the Army, was drawn up by Con- 
giess. The consideration of it proceeded /flW/flj«( with the Petition to the King, 
and was passed by Congress while the Petition was engrossing. The truth is there 
was a considerable opposition to the sending another petition considering the manner 
in which the former had been treated. But ser'eral members were warm in favour of 
it. The matter was compromised, and the petition and declaration were both or- 
dered and passed in a manner together." C.'T. to D. Ramsay. Neiu York : Nov. 
4, 17S6. Coll. N. Y. H. S. 1878 : //. 215-16. 



32 John Dickinson, the Author of the Declaration 

stead of a harmless necessary word of description in 
that place, and one absolutely colorless and void of of- 
fence. It would hopelessly puzzle the most diligent 
critic to find anything hidden in that simple combination 
of eight letters of the alphabet, where it is used in that 
document. 

If any man can discover any good honest reason why 
Mr. Jefferson wrote such a story in his autobiography — 
he will render a seasonable and important service to the 
much exalted reputation of its author. 

Mr. Jefferson himself has furnished a formula for stat- 
ing with due respect any doubts of the accuracy of his 
recollections. Referring to a letter of Governor Mc- 
Kean, written in July, 1807, on the circumstances at- 
tending the Declaration of Independence, he says, that 
the Governor, " trusting to his memory chiefly, at an 
age when our memories are not to be trusted, has con- 
founded two questions and ascribed proceedings to one 
which belonged to the other." * 

Now Governor McKean had then reached his seventy- 
third year. Mr. Jefferson's Memoirs were begun, as he 
has himself told us, at the age of seventy-seven. To 
complete them, he seems to have not only trusted his 
memory but taxed his invention. 

I have quoted the performances of Mr. Jefferson's 



• In a letter to Madison, Aug. 30, 1823, Mr. Jefferson says : "Mr. Adams's mem- 
ory has led him into unquestionable error. At the age of eighty-eight and forty- 
seven years after the transactions . . . this is not wonderful. Nor should I, 
at the age of eighty, on the small advantage of that difference only, venture to op- 
pose my memory to his, were it not supported by written notes, t.aken by myself at 
the moment, and on the spot." Works : vii. 304. 

In a letter to Mr. Wirt (Aug. 5, 1815), he says of the same period : " the trans- 
action is too distant, and my memory too indistinct to hazard as with precision even 
what I think I heard from them [other contemporaries]. In this decay of memory, 
Mr. Edmund Randolph must have suffered at a much earlier period of life than my- 
self." Works: vi. 4S6. 



on Taking up Arms in 1775. . ZZ 

biographers, who have adopted his statements without 
any hesitation. It is needless to multiply examples of 
the facility with which the pen of the ready writer con- 
tributes to the currency of errors of fact, which become 
inveterate by repetition. 

" Addictus jurare in verba magistri," if not the motto, 
describes the active principle, of the great mass of hasty, 
careless, indifferent, and uncritical writers of what they 
or their publishers call history. 

But these are not all. The greatest is behind — for 
the honored name of Mr. Bancroft must be cited as hav- 
ing accepted without criticism these statements of Mr. 
Jefferson. That great historian, whose work is at once 
the monument of his own fame and that of his country, 
is not to be mentioned here or by me without becoming 
reverence. The patriarch of American Letters, he has 
just added to the permanent literature of the world two 
volumes on the History of the Formation of the Federal 
Constitution which will doubtless increase his exalted 
reputation. His reference in the beginning of his last 
volume, to his old and his new friends is touching in its 
pathetic interest: " Scarcely one who wished me good 
speed when I first essayed to trace the history of Amer- 
ica remains to greet me with a welcome as I near the 
goal. Deeply grateful as I am for the friends who rise 
up to gladden my old age, their encouragement must 
renew my grief for those who have gone before me." 

At an age when most men seek repose and rest on 
their laurels, he is challenging new labors, and achieving 
new triumphs. Yet, Homer sometimes nods, and al- 
though accustomed to deal with every form of the ma- 
terials of history, with a keenness of critical faculty and 
skill unrivalled, yes, unapproached by any of his fellows 
— in this case, Mr. Bancroft seems to have been over- 



34 John Dickinson, the AtUhor of the Declaration 

powered in the presence of the great chief of American 
Democracy. He could not question the authority of 
Thomas Jefferson. 

We have then Mr. Dickinson's positive statement that 
he was the author of the document. Mr. Jefferson him- 
self confirms it as to all but the " last four paragraphs 
and half of the preceding one." 

The original manuscript draff, to which I now call 
the attention of the Society, proves that the author of 
any part was the author of every part — tJiat there was 
but one hand in the work, and that the hand of John 
Dickinson. 

I am well aware of the danger of attempting to deter- 
mine the authorship of a paper, intended for the public, 
from the handwriting in which the manuscript appears — 
unless the proofs are patent that it came from the hand 
of him whose thoughts and expressions it records. In 
this case there is no room whatever for doubt. The 
suggestion of imitation or forgery is excluded. No per- 
son but the author himself ever had any hand in the 
preparation of this document. It is in the handwriting 
of John Dickinson, and these corrections, additions, in- 
terlineations, revisions, in number, extent, position and 
character, forbid the supposition that he copied any por- 
tion of this paper from a draft by Mr. Jefferson, or any 
other person. It is the original first draft of the whole, 
and the proof of it is in no portion of the whole more 
conspicuous and certain than in the '' last four para- 
graphs and half of the preceding o?ie " claimed as his 
own by Mr. Jefferson — in his old age — and accorded to 
him without doubt or hesitation ever since. 

For the use of original papers for comparison which 
enabled me to determine positively the fact of author- 
ship by identifying the handwriting of this document. 



on Taking tip Arms z'w 1775. 35 

and its author's method of composition, I was indebted 
to the late Dr. John Diclcinson Logan of Baltimore, 
who became interested in my purpose, and was gratified 
by the results of my examination. Had he lived to this 
day, he would have been still more gratified by the 
knowledge that I should have this opportunity to pre- 
sent them to the New York Historical Society. 

His kindness and confidence enabled me to place side 
by side with these sheets — the similar drafts of one of 
the Petitions to the King, and the Address to the In- 
habitants of Quebec, dated October 26th, 1774, all indi- 
cating the same methods of composition and all unques- 
tionably in the same handwriting. I have had ample 
opportunity to acquire the knowledge of an expert in 
these and similar examinations, and I have no hesitation 
in speaking positively, and without fear of cavil or con- 
tradiction from anyone who is qualified to give an opin- 
ion in the case. My position cannot be successfully as- 
sailed. I am sure of it. 

And now my task is ended — my purpose is accom- 
plished. Permit me however to say that I will not dis- 
guise the pleasure I have felt in paying such tribute as 
I could to the memory of John Dickinson — the grand 
old Quaker Farmer on the Delaware ! 

Some of us are able to remember men who served in 
the American Army of the Revolution — men who knew 
the great leader of that army, or survived him long 
enough to make even the fact that they had seen him a 
mark of distinction — the relics of those regiments whose 
patience and fortitude and perseverance and devotion 
to the cause of their country had won the name and the 
fame of the Patriot Army. We recall their appearance 
with reverence and affection — and we shall not willingly 
forget their memories. They emphasized to us in our 



36 yohu Dickinsoti, on Taking up Arms in 1775. 

youth, the story of that struggle through which the 
United States came to take a place in the family of na- 
tions — and as our children study the pages of the history 
of that far-off time, and we recognize the glow of their 
young hearts with patriotic pride in their country and 
the thrilling record of its heroic age — we pray that the 
day may never come again for tears or sorrow to inter- 
rupt or mingle with the recollections of that nobler time 
past. In the bright and glorious morning of life — while 
the purple light of youth fills the whole atmosphere of 
existence, it is fitting that the grand images of the 
Fathers of the Republic should pass in historic array 
along the high places of remembrance into the Parthe- 
non of History — the perpetual procession of the Pan- 
Athenaic Festival of Memory. But let there be no 
heathen worship of idols ! only the great ideals of Truth 
and Justice — consecrated in all hearts by the historic 
muse ! And let the memorials of those days be care- 
fully preserved, that the record may be pure and 
complete ! 

We revere the memories of the men of that day, all 
long past into history. Is not something of the same 
reverence which we would pay to them, if they were 
here, due to these papers, these mute witnesses that 
testify without fear or favor ; and, frail and imperfect as 
they are, become monuments of genius and patriotism — 
vindicating themselves and their authors from misrepre- 
sentation, as they silently tell their story without possi- 
bility of successful contradiction ? 



APPENDIX. 



I. — The Liberty Song. 
A Song noiu much in Vogue in North America. 

The intimacy between Mr. Dickinson and James Otis, of Massa- 
chusetts, has been mentioned in the text. Two letters of the 
former, printed by the biographer of the latter, have preserved 
the history of Mr. Dickinson's song. 

"Philadelphia, July 4, 1768. 

" Dear Sir, — I inclose you a song for American freedom. I 
have long since renounced poetry. But as indifferent songs are 
frequently very powerful on certain occasions, I venture to in- 
voke the deserted muses, I hope that my good intentions will pro- 
cure pardon with those I wish to please for the baldness of my 
numbers. 

" My worthy friend, Dr. Arthur Lee, a gentleman of distin- 
guished family, abilities, and patriotism, in Virginia, composed 
eight lines of it. 

" Cardinal de Retz always inforced his political operations by 
songs. I wish our attempt may be useful. I shall be glad to hear 
from you, if you have a moment's leisure to scribble a line to, 
dear sir, your most affectionate, most obedient servant, 

"John Dickinson." 

A few days later Mr. Dickinson sent an amended copy with 
the following letter, 

" Dear Sir, 

I inclosed to you the other day the copy of a song composed in 
great haste, I think it was rather too bald, I now send a corrected 
copy, which I like better. If you think the bagatelle worth pub- 



38 Appendix. 

lishing, I beg it may be this copy. If the first is published before 
this comes to hand, I shall be much obliged to you if you will be 
so good as to publish this with some little note, "that this is a 
true copy of the original." 

In this copy I think it may be well enough to add between the 
fourth and fifth stanzas, these lines : 

How soviet are the labo".rs that freemen endure, 
That they shall enjoy all the profits secure. 
No more such sweet labours Americans know, 
If Britons shall reap wliat Americans sow. 
In freedom we're born, ^S^-Y. 

I am, dear sir, with the utmost sincerity, your most affectionate 
and most humble ser\'ant, 

JOHN DICKINSON. 
Hon. James Otis. 
Philadelphia, July 6th, 1768." 

The song appeared in the Penmylvania Gazette, No. 206, July 
7th, 1768, signed "D.," and also in the Boston Gazette and Country 
Journal, No. 694, July i8th, 1768. The corrected version was 
printed in the Pennsylvania Chronicle, July nth, 1768. 



A Song now much in Vogue in North America. 

Tune, Heart of Oak. 

Come join hand in hand, brave Americans all. 
And rouse your bold hearts at fair liberty's call ; 
No tyrannous acts shall suppress yaxix Just claim. 
Or stain with dishonour America's name. 

In FREEDOM we're born, and in freedom we'll live 

Our purses are ready. 

Steady, friends, steady, 

Not as slaves, but as freemen, our money we'll give. 

Our y/orthy forefathers, let's give 'em a cheer, 
To climates unknown did courageously steer ; 
Thro' oceans to itesarts for freedom they came, 
And dying bequeathed us ihtvc freedom anifame. 
Chorus. 



Appendix. . 39 

Their generous bosoms all dangers despis'd, 
So highly, so wisely, their birthrights they priz'd 
We'll keep what they gave, — we will piously keep, 
Nor frustrate their toils on the land or the deep. 
Chorus. 

The tree their own hands had to liberty rear'd, 
They liv'd to behold growing strong and rever'd ; 
With transport they cried, "now our wishes we gain, 
For our children shall gather the fruits of our pain." 
Chorus. 

Swarms oK placemen* aai pensioners soon will appear, 
Like locusts deforming the charms of the year ; 
Suns vainly will rise, showers vainly descend, 
If we are to drudge for what others shall spend. 
Chorus. 

Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all. 
By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall, 
In so righteous a cause let us hope to succeed, 
For heaven approves of each generous deed. 
Chorus. 

All ages shall speak with amaze and applause. 
Of the courage we'll shew in support of our laws 
To die we can bear, — but to serve we disdain. 
For shame is io freemen more dreadful than pain. 
Chorus. 

This bumper I crown for our sovereign' s health. 
And this for Brita?inia's glory and wealth ; 
That wealth and that glory immortal may be, 
If she is but just, and if we are but free. 

* The ministry have already begun to give away m pensions, the money ihey lately 
took out of our pockets, without our consent. 



40 Appendix. 



II. — Governor Dickinson's Defence in 1782-3. 

The magnanimous and noble defence of Dickinson against his 
personal and political enemies ought to have been reprinted long 
ago. When he became a candidate for the office of President of 
the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, he wrote to the 
printers of Philadelphia, requesting them to publish every piece 
that should be offered against him, but nothing in his favor, thus 
defying beyond expression all the efforts of his enemies against 
him. After his triumphant election, he gave to the press an ad- 
dress to his opponents, which may challenge comparison as a 
master-piece of political polemics. The following extract relates 
to the charge that he opposed the Declaration of Independence 
in Congress, 

[From the Pennsylvania Packet, or the General Advertiser, 
Tuesday, Dec. 31, 1782. Vol. xi. No. 983.] 

The first charge, as it is made, I deny ; but I confess that I op- 
posed the making the declaration of independence at the time 
when it was made. The right and authority of Congress to make 
it, the justice of making it, I acknowledged. The policy of then 
making it I disputed. 

To render this charge criminal, it should be shewn that I was 
influenced by unworthy motives. It will not be enough to prove 
that I was mistaken ; so far from it, that if it appears I was actu- 
ated by a tender affection for my country, I know my country will 
excuse the honest error. 

When that momentous affair was considered in Congress, I was 
a member of that honourable body for this State. I thereby be- 
came a trustee for Pennsylvania immediately, and in some measure 
for the rest of America. The business related to the happiness of 
millions then in existence, and of more millions who were un- 
born. I felt the duty, and endeavoured faithfully to discharge it. 

Malice and envy must sigh and confess, that I was among the 
very first men on this continent, who by the open and decided 
steps we took staked our lives and fortunes on our country's 
cause. This was done at an aera of the greatest danger, as it was 
unknown how far we should be supported. In this point no re- 



Appendix. 41 

serve, no caution was used by me ; and, tho' marked out by pe- 
culiar circumstances for the resentment and vengeance of our 
enemies, if they had succeeded, I frankly pledged my all for her 
freedom. 

Thus far I had a right to go, whatever I ventured, for I was 
risking only »y own. But when I came to deliberate on a point 
of the last importance to you and my other fellow-citizens, and to 
your and their posterity, then, and not till then, I became guilty 
of reserve and caution — if it was guilt to be more concerned for 
you and them, than I had been for myself. For you and them I 
freely devoted myself to everj' hazard. For you and them I ex- 
erted all my cares and labors, that not one drop of blood should be 
unnecessarily drawn from American veins, nor one scene of mis- 
ery needlessly introduced within American borders. 

My first objection to making the declaration of independence, 
al the time when it ivas made, arose from this consideration. It was 
acknowledged in the debate, that the first campaign would be 
decisive as to the final event of the controversy. I insisted that 
the declaration would not strengthen us by one man, or by the 
least supply — on the contrary, it might be construed to manifest 
such an aversion on our part, as might inflame the calamities of 
the contest, and expose our soldiers and inhabitants in general to 
additional cruelties and outrages — We ought not, without some 
prelusory trials of our strength, to commit our country upon an 
alternative, where, to recede wouldht infamy — and to persist might 
be destruction. 

No instance was recollected of a people, without a battle fought 
or an ally gained, abrogating for ever their connection with a 
great, rich, warlike, commercial empire, whose wealth or connec- 
tions had always procured allies when wanted, and bringing the 
matter finally to a prosperous conclusion. 

It was informing our enemies what was the ultimate object of 
our arms, which ought to be concealed until we had consulted 
other powers, and were better prepared for resistance. — It would 
soon confirm the charges of those in Great Britain who were 
moGt hostile to us, and too early contradict the defences made by 
those who were most friendly toward us — It might therefore unite 
the different parties there against us, without our gaining any- 
thing in counterbalance — And it might occasion disunion among 
ourselves, and thus weaken us. 



42 Appendix. 

With other powers, it might rather injure than avail us — There 
was a certain weight and dignity in sucli movements, when they 
appeared to be regulated by prudence, that would be lost, if they 
were attributed to the emotions of passion — If politicians should 
be induced to ascribe the measure to the violence of this dictator, 
we might be deprived in their judgment, of the merit of what they 
thought we had well done before, and of a just credit with them 
in future for our real force and fixed intentions — How such a 
judgment would operate, was obvious. 

Foreign aid would* not be obtained by the declaration, but by 
our actions in the field, which were the only evidences of our 
union and vigor, that would be respected, — and by the sentiments 
statesmen should form upon the relative consequences of the dis- 
pute. This opinion was confirmed by many similar instances, 
particularly in the war between the United Provinces of the Low 
Countries and Spain, in which France and England assisted the for- 
mer, before they declared themselves independent, which they did 
not do till the ninth year of the war. If it was the interest of any 
European kingdom or state to aid us, we should be aided without 
such a declaration. — If it was not, we should not be aided with it. 
— On the sixth day oijiily, 1775, ayear within two days be/ore the 
declaration. Congress assured the people ol America in an address, 
thatj^ " Foreign assistance was Undoubtedly attainable." Facts 

SUBSEQUENT TO THAT DaTE, WITH WHICH EVERY MEMBER WAS 
ACQUAINTED, IT WAS NEEDLESS TO MENTION. 

We ought to know the dispositions of the great powers, before 
such an irrevocable step should be taken ; and, if they did not 
generally choose to interfere, how far they would permit any one 
or more of them to interfere. The erection of an Independent 
Empire on this continent was a phzenomenon in the world — Its 
effects would be immense, and might vibrate round the globe — 
How they might affect, or be supposed to affect old establish- 
ments, was not ascertained — It was singularly disrespectful to 
France, to make the declaration before her sense was known, as 
we had sent an Agent expressly to enquire " whether such a dec- 
laration would be acceptable to her ; " and we had reason to be- 
lieve he was then arrived at the Court of Versailles — Such precipi- 

* This was confirmed by the conduct of France. 
■f Journals of Congress, Vol. I. Page 147. 



Appendix. 43 

tation might be unsuitable to the circumstances of that kingdom, 
and inconvenient — The measure ought to be delayed, till the 
common interests should be in the best manner consulted, by 
common consent. Besides, the door to accommodation with 
Great Britain ought not to be shut, until we knew what terms 
could be obtained from some competent power — Thus to break 
with her, before we had compacted with another, was to make ex- 
periments on the lives and liberties of my countrymen, which I 
would sooner die than agree to make ; at best, it was to throw us 
into the hands of some other power, and to lie at mercy ; for we 
should have passed the river, that was never to be repassed — If 
treated with some regard, we might yet be obliged to receive a 
disagreeable law, tacked to a necessary aid. This was not the 
plan we should pursue. We ought to retain the declaration, and 
remain as much masters as possible of our own fame and fate — 
We ought to inform that power, that we were filled with a just 
detestation of our oppressors ; that we were determined to cast 
off forever all subjection to them ; to declare ourselves independ- 
ent ; and to support that declaration with our lives and fortunes 
— provided that power should approve the proceeding ; would 
acknowledge our independence ; and enter into a treaty with us 
upon equitable and advantageous conditions. 

True it is, that we have happily succeeded, without observ- 
ing these precautions ; and let my enemies triumph in this con- 
cession, when they shall have produced an example from history 
to equal the justice, wisdom, benevolence, magnanimity and 
good faith, displayed by His Most Christian Majesty, in his 
conduct towards us. Till then, at least, let me be pardoned 
for having doubted — whether there was such a Monarch upon 
earth. 

Other objections to making the declaration, at the time ivhcn it 
■was made, were suggested by our internal circumstances. To me 
it seemed, that, in the nature of things, the formation of our gov- 
ernments, and an agreement upon the terms of our confederation, 
ought to precede the assumption of our station among Sovereigns. 
A sovereignty, composed of several distinct bodies of men, not 
subject to established constitutions, and those bodies not com- 
bined together by the sanction of any confirmed articles of union, 
was such a sovereignty as had never appeared. These particulars 
would not be unobserved by foreign kingdoms and states, and 



44 Appendix. 

they would wait for * other proofs of political energy, before they 
would treat us with the desired attention. 

With respect to ourselves, the consideration was still more se- 
rious. 

The forming of our governments was a new and difficult work. 
They ought to be rendered as generally satisfactory to the people 
as possible. When this was done, and the people perceived that 
they and their posterity were to live under well-regulated consti- 
tutions, they would be encouraged to look forward to confedera- 
tion and independence, as completing the noble system of their 
political happiness. The objects nearest to them were w^^zi' envel- 
oped in clouds, and therefore those more distant must appear con- 
fused. That they were independent, they would know ; but the 
relation one citizen was to bear to another, and the connection 
one State was to have with another, they did not, could not know. 
Mankind were naturally attached to plans of government, that 
promised quiet and security under them. General satisfaction 
with them, when formed, would be indeed a great point attained ; 
but persons of reflection would perhaps think it absolutely neces- 
sary, that Congress should institute some mode for preserving 
them from the misfortunes of future discord. 

The confederation ought to be settled, before the declaration of 
independence.! Foreigners would think it most regular. The 
weaker states would not be in so much danger of having disad- 
vantageous terms imposed upon them by the stronger. If the 
declaration was first made, J political necessities might urge on 
the acceptance of conditions, that were highly disagreeable to 
parts of the union. The present comparative circumstances of 
the states § were now tolerably well understood ; but some states 
had very extraordinary claims to territory, that if admitted in a 
future confederation, as they might be, the terms of it not being 
yet adjusted, all idea of the present comparison between them 
would be confounded. Those states, whose boundaries were ac- 
knowledged, would find themselves sink in proportion to the ele- 

• See this confessed in \\\s French " Observations on \)\z justificative Memorial 
of the Court of London?' 

f This has been since proved, by France urging, as she has done, the completion 
of the Confederation. 

\ This has since actually happened, 

§The word "States" is used here as most familiar, tho' not used in the debate. 



Appendix. ^ 45 

vation of their neighbours. Besides, theunlocated lands, not com- 
prehended within acknowledged boundaries, were deemed a fund 
suflBcient to defray a vast part, if not the whole, of the expences 
of the war. These ought to be considered as the property of all 
the States, acquired by the arms of all. For these reasons, the 
boundaries of the States ought to be fixed before the declaration, 
and their respective rights mutually guarantied ; and the unlo- 
cated lands ought also, previous to that declaration, to be sol- 
emnly appropriated to the benefit of all the States : For it might 
be extremely difficult, if not impracticable, to obtain these decis- 
ions afterwards. Upon the whole, when things should be thus 
deliberately rendered firm at home, and favourable abroad, then 
let America 

"AttolUns humeris Famam, et Fata nepotum," 

advance with majestic steps, and assume her station among the 
sovereigns of the world. 

Thus to have thought, and thus to have spoke, was my offence. 
Gentlemen, on the subject of independence. Do you condemn 
me for thinking as I did ? or for speaking as I thought ? Could 
the former be a crime ? and was not the latter a duty ? What 
title of infamy would have been adequate to my guilt, if, enter- 
taining the sentiments I did, and entrusted as I was, any consid- 
eration could have prevailed upon me to suppress those senti- 
ments on a point of such eventful moment to my country? Was 
I by her placed in Congress, to re-echo the words of others, or to 
exercise my judgment, and obey my conscience, in deciding upon 
the common welfare ? 

A powerful consideration was not wanting, to tempt me into a 
swerving from the rule ever prescribed to myself — that of regard- 
ing the general good with singleness of heart. 

It was my misfortune to have acquired some share of reputa- 
tion ; for the injuries done to my country had occasioned it. 
Her love I valued as I ought, but not as much as I valued her- 
self. I knew, and told Congress, that I was acting an unpopular 
part in the debate upon the declaration ; and I desired that illus- 
trious Assembly to witness the integrity, if not the policy, of my 
conduct. 

What other motive can you suspect that I had for this behav- 
iour ? Compare it with my preceding and following actions. 



46 Appendix. 

Tho' I spoke my sentiments freely, as an honest man ought to do, 
yet, when a determination was made upon the question against 
my opinion, I received that determination as the sacred voice of 
my country, as a voice that proclaimed her destiny, in which, by 
every impulse of my soul, I was resolved to share, and to stand 
or fall with her in that plan of freedom which she had chosen. 
From that moment, it became my determination ; and I cheer- 
fully contributed my endeavours for its perpetual establishment. 

Have you forgot, gentlemen, this remarkable circumstance, 
that within a few days, to the best of my remembrance, within a 
week. After the Declaration of Independence, I was the ^^^/y Mem- 
ber of Congress that marched with my regiment to Elizabeth-Town 
against our enemies, then invading the State of New York, and 
continued in actual service there, daily in sight of them, every 
moment exposed, and frequently expecting upon intelligence re- 
ceived to be attacked, during the whole tour of duty performed 
by the militia of this city and neighbourhood ? 

Be pleased to decide, what was my motive for this conduct. 
Be pleased also to consider what is the reason, why none of your 
writers, in the multitude of their publications against me, have 
ever mentioned, or even given the least hint of this fact. Don't 
you really believe, that, if it was thought by them only a trifling 
circumstance in my favor, they would have taken some notice of 
it, and, with one of their witty turns, have consigned it over to 
contempt ? Don't you really believe it was thought by them a 
strong proof of my devotion to the independence of America, when 
once it became the resolution of America — a proof which they wish 
never to be remembered in Pennsylvania — and a clear demonstra- 
tion that all my arguments, concerning the time of making the dec- 
laration, were in my judgment and conscience done away, and 
were of no more use, after it was made, than the rubbish caused in 
erecting a palace ? Reasons, that were proper in a debate, were 
useless after a decision ; and the nature of these evinces that they 
opposed only the time of the declaration, and not independence 
itself. 

The event has proved, that the national Council was right ; and 
may others learn, by my instance, to venerate the wisdom col- 
lected in that body as they ought to do. There is a light in that 
constellation, sufficient to direct the vessel freighted with the for- 
tunes of America, through the tempestuous ocean upon which she 



Appendix. 47 

now sails, -safe into the wish'd for port — if the people will but be 
guided by it. 

Is it an incredible thing with you, gentlemen, that a man might 
desire the declaration to be deferred, and yet heartily maintain it 
after it was made ! If so, what do you think of those men, who 
opposed the declaration in Congress -as earnestly as I did, and 
now hold the highest posts under 77/1? United States, or some of 
them, are possessed of their utmost confidence, and discharge 
their respective duties with distinguished honor to themselves, 
and advantage to America ? What do you think of numbers of 
brave officers in our army, who wished the declaration to be de- 
ferred, and yet, from the instant it was made, and ever since, 
have, under a load of difficulties, traversed different regions of 
this continent, freely to proffer their blood for its support ? 



III. — John Dickinson in the Federal Convention of 1787. 

In his History of the United States, Mr. Bancroft stated that 
when the Articles of Confederation were first discussed in Con- 
gress, in July, 1776, the question being upon the seventeenth arti- 
cle, which provided that in determining questions, each colony 
should have one vote, Sherman of Connecticut said : " The vote 
should be taken two ways : call the Colonies, and call the in- 
dividuals, and have a majority of both." This idea he probably 
derived from Jefferson, who enforced in private as the means to 
save the Union, that " any proposition might be negatived by the 
representatives of a majority of the people, or of a majority of 
the colonies." Here is the thought out of which the great com- 
promise of our Constitution was evolved." Vol. ix. p. 55. Ed. 
1866. 

Mr. Jefferson and John Adams both reported this particular 
debate. The report of the latter is the authority for the words of 
Sherman. It does not appear from either account that Jefferson 
said anything on the subject, although his name appears several 
times as taking a part in the discussion generally. How he en- 



48 Appendix. 

forced the idea in private, as suggested by Mr. Bancroft, will pres- 
ently appear. 

In his last revision, Mr. Bancroft's account of this incident of 
the debate assumes the following form : Vol. v. 14. 1885. 

" The vote," said Sherman of Connecticut, " should be taken 
two ways : call the colonies, and call the individuals, and have a 
majority of both." Jefferson enforced, as the means to save the 
union, that 'any proposition might be negatived by the represen- 
tatives of a majority of the people, or of a majority of the colo- 
nies.' Here is the thought out of which the great compromise 
of our Constitution was evolved." * 

The documents out of which Mr. Bancroft has evolved this 
award to Thomas Jefferson of a great hand in the establishment 
of the Constitution of the United States are as follows : 

Thomas Jefferson to John Adams : From Williamsburgh, i6th 
May, 1777 : 

Extract : " I learn from our delegates that the confederation is 
again on the carpet, a great and necessary work, but 1 fear almost 
desperate. The point of representation is what most alarms me, as 
I fear the great and small states are bitterly determined not to cede. 
Will you be so good as to recollect the proposition I formerly made 
you in private, and try if you can work it into some good to save 
our union ? It was that any proposition migiit be negatived by 
the representatives of a majority of the people of America, or of a ma- 
jority of the colonies of America. The former secures the larger, the 
latter, the smaller colonies. I have mentioned it to many here. 
The good whigs, I think, will so far cede their opinions for the 
sake of the Union, and others we care little for." Works of John 
Adams : ix. 465-6. 

John Adams, from Philadelphia, 26 May, 1777, replies : 

Extract : " The great work of confederation drags heavily on, 
but I do not despair of it. The great and small colonies must be 
brought as near together as possible, and I am not without hopes 
that this may be done to the tolerable satisfaction of both. Your 
thought. Sir, that any proposition may be negatived by the rep- 
resentatives of a majority of the people or of a majority of States,! 

* ya/m Adams: ii. 499, and ix. 465, 467. 

f Mr. Jefferson's idea of " a concurrence of a majority of the people of the Union " 
is intimated in his statement to M. de Meusnier, of the Eiicyclop/die Mfthodique in 
1786. "It was thought that this [majority] would be insured, by requiring Ifu 



Appendix. 49 

shall be attended to ; and I will endeavor to get it introduced, if 
we cannot succeed in our wishes for a representation and a rule 
of voting perfectly equitable, which has no equal in my mind." 
Id., ix. 467. 

Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, from Paris, December 20, 
1787 : apparently ignorant of his alleged claim to its authorship 
ten years before, says : 

Extract : " I am captivated by the compromise of the opposite 
claims of the great and little states, of the latter to equal, and the 
former to proportional influence." Works : ii. 329. 

Mr. Dickinson's part in the proceedings of the Convention of 
1787 has never been justly shown by any of the historians. I pro- 
pose to point out distinctly some of the facts, which will put this 
Jeflfersonian authorship of any part of the Constitution into the 
same category as his authorship of any part of the Declaration of 

I77S- 
Virginia led the way in the Convention, with what is now well 

known as the Virginia Plan. The first resolution of that plan 
was a preamble. Its first substantial proposition for the new 
government was declared by the second resolution, in the fol- 
lowing words : 

" The right of suffrage in the national legislature ought to be 
proportioned to the quotas of contribution, or to the number of 
free inhabitants." 

This stumbling-block thus laid in the path was not speedily 
removed. It became the rock of offence almost to destruction, 
which only exalted wisdom and foresight could and did avert. 
The determination of the smaller states to assert their sovereignty 
and equality had been revealed before the organization of the as- 
sembly was completed in that instruction of the smallest one rep- 
resented, which forbade its delegates to surrender the guarantees 
established by the Articles of Confederation. Delaware had from 
the beginning of the Union, in July, 1776, insisted that in deter- 
mining questions, each colony should have one vote. Cf. Ban- 
croft : ix. S3. 

voicts of nine States; because, according to the loose estimates which had been 
made of the inhabitants, and the proportion of them which were free, it was be- 
lieved, that e-i'cn the nine smallest would include a majority of the free citizens of 
the Union." Randolph : L 398, cf. debate on the manner of voting in Congress: ib. 
i. 26-30. 



50 Appendix. 

Next in point of time and not second in importance to the de- 
liverance of Virginia on tiie same subject, was the principle of 
the varied representation of sovereignties and people, finally im- 
bedded in the completed work of the Convention, the Constitu- 
tion itself. It has been said that this representation was a mere 
compromise — but it was more than that. It was a victory over 
all the compromises. Clearly and definitely stated at the outset, 
in direct opposition to the equally clear and definite statement of 
Randolph, after a series of manoeuvres which are bewildering to 
read, even in the pages of Bancroft, the principle enunciated by 
Dickinson not only " sank deep into the minds of his hearers," 
but became the absolute factor of success in the Convention itself 
and hardly less potent among the people, and in the State Con- 
ventions which were to pass upon its work. It was the first 
theorem of the political calculus intended to solve problems of 
higher degree than any hitherto reached. It has proved sufficient 
during the changes of a century in human affairs. 

The equal representation of each state, with equal suffrage in one 
branch of the legislature, was an original substantive proposition, 
made in the Convention at Philadelphia, in 1787, very soon after 
the draft offered by Virginia. 

Of that proposition John Dickinson was the author, and it was 
made and brought forward by him expressly upon this principle, 
that a territory of such extent as that of United America, could 
not be safely and advantageously governed, but by a combination 
of republics, each retaining all the rights of supreme sovereignty, 
excepting such as ought to be contributed to the union ; that for 
the securer preservation of these sovereignties, they ought to be 
represented in a body by themselves, and with equal suffrage ; 
and that they would be annihilated, if both branches of the legis- 
lature were to be formed of representatives of the people, in pro- 
portion to the number of inhabitants in each state. He was forti- 
fied in his position by the analogy of the House of Lords in Great 
Britain, respecting which Justice Blackstone argued in like man- 
ner, after admitting the expediency of titles of nobility. " It is 
also expedient that their owners should form an independent and 
separate branch of the legislature " — otherwise " their privileges 
would soon be borne down and overwhelmed." 

In the Convention at Philadelphia, when this very point, con- 
cerning the distribution of powers between the national govern- 



Appendix. 5 1 

ment and the state governments was under debate, Dickinson in- 
troduced a happy illustration. " Our political system thus ar- 
ranged, may perhaps not unaptly be said to resemble the solar 
system. 

" The concentrated energy of the union, may be compared to 
the sun full of light and heat, abounding with blessings, and the 
several states to the planets of different sizes, revolving round it 
in conformity to fixed laws, receiving its salutary influences, and 
communicating benefits to one another, while at the same time 
each turns on its own axis, for its own accommodation. 

"The peculiar power of each state that urges it through its 
orbit, may be called its projectile force, and the constantly oper- 
ating tendency of all towards the central sun of the system, and 
towards each other, all operating upon all, with the regulated 
observance of due distances from one another, may be styled a 
force of attraction. 

" What pity ! that these beautiful spheres, with all their delight- 
ful harmonies, should ever be crushed and flattened into one vast 
consolidation." 

This illustration produced a decided impression upon the mem- 
bers of the Convention, and was referred to more than once by 
subsequent speakers. In seconding a motion to give to the na- 
tional legislature the authority to negative all laws of the states 
which they should judge to be improper, Mr. Madison utilized 
the illustration borrowed from the planetary system, and declared 
this prerogative of the general government to be the great per- 
vading principle that must control the centrifugal tendency of the 
states, which, without it, would continually fly out of their proper 
orbits, and destroy the order and harmony of the political system. 
Debates: ii. 816, 817, 823. 

Nor was Dickinson wanting in the parliamentary skill and abil- 
ity required to shape the result. After it had been determined 
without debate that the national legislature should be composed 
of two branches, it was upon his motion that with one consent 
the choice of the senate was entrusted to the several state legis- 
latures, and, to use Mr. Bancroft's phrase, " in this way the States 
as States made their lodgement in the new Constitution." They 
came to stay, and the champions of the great states recognized in 
this " stepping stone to an equal representation " a fatal blow at 
their doctrine — a defeat which would involve the surrender of the 



52 Appendix, 

principle of proportional representation in the Senate, which had 
been insisted upon by the large states and dreaded by the small 
ones. Madison Papers : ii. 8i6. 

Dickinson's influence was further felt in the substitution of his 
phrase " a government of the United States " or its equivalents 
for "national government " and other portions of the Virginia 
plan in which the word national was repeated many times. Mr. 
Bancroft calls this " a colorless change " — but it harmonized with 
the tone to be given to the new edifice. 

After long, angry, and threatening discussions in Committee 
and Convention, the final adjustment of representation was 
reached, and the equal voice of each State in the Senate was 
established. The great states were overcome. They had con- 
ceded nothing ; they were defeated. The smaller states re- 
tained the autonomy guaranteed by the confederation, and char- 
acterized by Dickinson as "that justly darling object of American 
affections." The plan of confederation had been drawn by John 
Dickinson, and no one knew better than its chief author that it 
had been founded on the equality of the states in the article of 
suffrage and declared to be perpetual. That doctrine was made 
a corner-stone in the foundation of the government of the United 
States. It has been reserved for the latest historian of the Fed- 
eral Constitution to find among the preliminary private discus- 
sions of the terms of confederation in 1776 and 1777, a compro- 
mise which was to become history and prophecy combined, and 
make Thomas Jefferson at once the prophet and apostle of the 
new Federal dispensation ! If he was in any sense the creator of 
the Federal Constitution, he despised the work of his own hands, 
when it stood complete before him ; and to him and his followers 
have been due the greatest trials through which it has passed, 
during its first century of existence, and the most serious dangers 
which threaten it to-day — as that period is drawing to a close. 



Appendix. . 53 



IV. — John Dickinson in his Old Age. 

The following is an extract of a letter from a gentleman of 
New York City, dated : 

"Wilmington, Del, Dec. lo, 1802. 

" I had yesterday the pleasure of seeing, for the first time, the 
venerable John Dickinson, of this place, the celebrated author of 
the Farmer's Letters, &c., and universally esteemed one of the 
most meritorious and respectable citizens of the union. This 
veteran patriot has now passed his seventieth year ; yet enjoys, 
in a green old age, the reward of a life of temperance, devoted to 
the promotion of virtue and the service of his country. His 
countenance, adorned with locks of the purest silver, exhibits the 
marks of advanced years, yet is heightened by a tempered spirit 
and vivacity of eyes and feature that denotes a mind still in the 
possession of its vigor. His features are frank and open, be- 
speaking confidence while they convey intelligence. In his per- 
son he is above the middle size, erect, and inclined to slender. 
In his dress there is a plainness appertaining to the most respect- 
able of the class of Friends, of which society he is a member 
(though not a rigid one), in his whole appearance and deport- 
ment he is very interesting and engaging— of the most gentle- 
manly manners, and charitable in the highest extreme. While 
gazing on his venerable countenance I could not help tracing in 
his finely expressive features, traits of character which accorded 
with the patriotic proofs of integrity and talent by which his life 
has been distinguished. I found him easy of access, and his con- 
versation cheerful, affable and interesting. 

" I passed near four hours in his company, yesterday after- 
noon, and had also the pleasure of breakfasting and spending the 
whole of this morning with him — nor can I recollect any event 
from which I have received more real and unalloyed pleasure. 

" He appears to take the highest interest in the welfare of his 
country, and the same patriotism that warmed the meridian of 
his days extends its influence, with unabated fervor, to this period 
of its declension. It burns with a flame as clear and as steady at 
this as at any former moment." 



FAC-SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF 
THE DECLARATION OF 1775. 

The following document has been preserved among the treas- 
ures of the New York Historical Society for certainly half a cen- 
tury. I remember it well as among the mass of miscellaneous 
manuscripts which I examined with youthful curiosity forty years 
ago, soon after I began my long tour of duty in the service of 
that institution, in 1841. But it was not until I became familiar 
with the handwriting of John Dickinson that it assumed any 
special importance in my eyes, since which time I have neither 
forgotten it nor spared any pains of research or study to estab- 
lish its place among the monuments of its author's ability and 
patriotism. 

The original is well preserved in two folio sheets, which are 
here reproduced in a reduced fac-simile by Bierstadt. 

G. H. M. 

Lenox Library, August, 1890. 



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JOHN DICKINSON 

THE AUTHOR OF THE DECLARATION 
ON TAKING UP ARMS IN 

•775 



GEORGE H. MOORE, LL.D. 

SUPERINTENDENT OF THE I.ENOX LIBRARV 



With a facsimile from the Oiigina/ Draft 



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